University of Tokyo

Abstract
Survey Number 0187
Survey Title RENGO Questionnaire Survey on Life Styles, 1998
Depositor Japanese Trade Union Confederation
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Period of Data Use Permission One year
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Summary RENGO has conducted "Survey of Life" every other year since its foundation in 1988. The purpose of the survey is in understanding the union member's reality of life and their feelings for their lives. The survey is conducted after the private sector employees' Spring Life Struggle (Shunto)of is settled, so that it would be useful for forming the agenda for the next spring Life Struggle. Due to the diversification of the union members' needs and consciousness, it has been pointed out recently that holding a monolithic request, which every one could share, is becoming difficult. While it is preferable to use the same search items to monitor the changes in two-year-period, the survey also tried to include some new items to find out the latest needs and consciousness. This year's survey was conducted for the purpose of understanding the realities of life and workplace of the union members, which is necessary to advance the 1999 Shunto. Using some of the search items used in the past, this survey tries to investigate why union members cannot feel "quality and richness" in their lives. It also tries to find out what kind of life style union members wish to pursue. The survey aims to serve as a useful material for forming a precise agenda for the "life struggle." Also, from this survey, the questionnaires were distributed through regional unions for the employees of middle and small-sized enterprises to better the former situation where questionnaires were hardly ever distributed to relatively small-sized enterprises. Finally, this year's survey is a special survey, in which search items regarding "wage and personnel management" are added. The results of this part of the survey will be analyzed by RENGO Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards.
Data Type quantitative research
quantitative research: micro data
Universe Union members of the sub-organizations under RENGO, and the union members of regional unions under RENGO
Unit of Observation Individual
Sample Size 44,000 questionnaires distributed (33,400 people belonging to sub-organization, among which 26,800 belong to private enterprise-based unions and 10,600 belong to regional unions), 25,029 effective response (56.9%) obtained.
Date of Collection 1998-05 ~ 1998-07
May-July 1998
Time Period 1998 ~ 1998
Spatial Unit Japan
All over Japan
Sampling Procedure Non-probability: Quota
Questionnaires were distributed through sub-organizations and regional unions.? Respondents' age and sex were taken into account upon distributing the questionnaires.
Mode of Data Collection Self-administered questionnaire
Questionnaires were distributed through two channels, one through sub-organizations and the other through regional unions.? It was requested that respondents' age and sex be taken into account when distributing the questionnaires.? Search items of the questionnaire distributed to regional unions were simplified.? It was also requested that basic search items such as type of business and size of the enterprise and situation regarding the introduction of certain systems be included in the questionnaire distributed to each union.? The representative of the unions were asked to fill in the questionnaire.
Investigator RENGO
DOI 10.34500/SSJDA.0187
Sponsors (Funds)
Related Publications (by the Investigator) "Report on the 98 RENGO Survey of Life," RENGO SEISAKU SHIRYO No. 115, January 29, 1999, RENGO.
Related Publications (based on Secondary Analysis) List of related publications (based on Secondary Analysis)
Documentation [Chosa-hyo]
Major Survey Items Demographics:
Sex, age, years of service, educational history, form of hiring, type of job, composition of the household, numbers of household members and children, income source of the household; annual income of the household; residence; type of housing; experiences of being a board member of the union.

Survey Items:
Respondent's total annual wage; monthly wage (without premium for overtime work) in May 1998; satisfaction in the current total annual wage; satisfaction in current life; things the respondent is dissatisfied with and worried about in his life; items in the list of expenditure, on which the respondent feels that he is spending a lot; items on which the respondent is trying not to spend so much; ways to spend the amount gained by tax reduction; annual housing-related expense; the age of the oldest child; annual educational expense for the oldest child; things the respondent is dissatisfied with and worried about in his work life; problems with job and work performance; important things to be considered in determining one's wage; the frequency of and the reasons for working overtime; overtime work in April 1999; hours counted in calculating premium wage; whether or not the respondent has homework; whether the respondent works overtime without pay; reasons for working overtime without pay; job training and self-training within the company; self-training being done by the respondent's own intention; wage disparity between male workers and female workers, the reasons why disparity exists; work life between age 60 (mandatory retirement age) and 65 (the age from which one starts to receive public pension); the kind of life style the respondent wants to lead after retirement; child-care leave taken in the past 3 years, reasons for not taking child-care leave; number family members who need care-taking; the extent to which the respondent would like to use family care leave system if provided, reasons for not wishing to have family care leave system; ideas and thoughts on life style and working style(6 items); what the respondent expect of trade unions.

"Survey on Wage and Personnel Management"
Search items:
(1)wage system and wage disparity: wage regulation, existence of wage table; acceptance of wage income being decided by the performance of both the enterprise and the individual; wage disparity between union members of same age; channels to acquire information on wage disparity; comparison of the annual income disparity of this year and the annual income disparity of 4 to 5 years ago; thoughts on the fluctuation of annual income disparity; comparator in comparing wages; annual income disparity between the respondent and the comparator.
(2) promotion system and disparity in promotion: whether justice is preserved in promotion decision-making; ages at which disparity in promotion widens; choice of future career; prospects for getting promoted to line managerial jobs.
(3) performance appraisal and merit system: transparency of performance evaluation; orders of the boss regarding goals; respondent's self-evaluation of his performance appraisal; the explanation of the boss for the evaluation results; whether and to what extent the respondent was satisfied with the evaluation results; what one can do when he is not satisfied with the results; working in a group or working individually?; difficulties for the management to evaluate merit and job performance; personnel management with little emphasis on merit and achievement; the extent to which merit system and result-based system is introduced, people's and unions' reaction in introducing those systems.
Date of Release 2004/10/18
Topics in CESSDA Click here for details

Working conditions
Equality, inequality and social exclusion
Leisure, tourism and sport
Topics in SSJDA Employment/Labor
Society/Culture
Version 1 : 2004-10-18
Notes for Users Data Sets are written in Japanese.